Really tiny micro ATX case, preferably with VESA mount

So it's time to upgrade my GF's rig. The old Core2 era system does its job but it's getting a little slow for my taste and it guzzles too much power.I'd take a mini ITX board, but the combination of 5.1 or better, three screen interfaces with one DisplayPort, low power and AMT with KVM can't be had. With micro ATX I could have it even rather cheap.

So I'm looking for recommendations for plain, very small micro ATX cases. Preferably without a PSU (or an efficient, good one), and the option for backpacking it onto a monitor with VESA mounting holes.Besides the mainboard it only needs to hold a single 2.5" SSD. Being limited to low profile cards is expected.

What compromises do you think you'll be making going from mATX to miniITX for such a minimalist system?You don't list add-on cards that you want to use, though a GPU might be expected, and a good MiniITX board will have everything else.The real compromise with the form factor, at least with Socket 1155 systems is number of DIMM slots and the placement of the CPU in proximity to the PCIe x16 slot, which limits what coolers you can use with a discrete GPU.

miniITX cases with VESA mounts are much easier to find, and some will accommodate a low profile card.

I have a couple of systems in the CoolerMaster Elite 100, which will take a MicroATX board, but not with expansion cards, It is discontinued, but it appears to live in as this case.

What compromises do you think you'll be making going from mATX to miniITX for such a minimalist system?

Either 5.1 or better sound (GF requirement) or KVM over IP (my requirement).Intel's DH77DF would be quite fine, but it has no AMT and KVM over IP support and also lacks the 19V input I would otherwise appreciate.If I just take the DQ77MK, which I use a a home server already, I get all I want, but in mATX.

The compromise I am thinking about is going from ITX to mATX.I literally will only stuff a mid end i5 and two 8GB DIMMs on the board and connect a single 2.5" SSD. A GPU's totally unnecessary and would only waste power.

I am starting to think, though, that a DQ77KB with a USB sound card would be an alternative.

@ HellDiverThere's nothing wrong with them. They just don't support out of band access for BIOS level things, don't allow me to boot from a virtual CDROM I supply over the network and the like. I don't want any PC in the house anymore where I would need to be physically present for anything, except hardware changes and feeling naughty touching it.Given that I don't consider a low end CPU or a cheap board anyways, this is a freebie.

5.1 or better needs to be analogue. The receiving end does not do SPDIF and is not going to be replaced.

The fact alone that I could do the setup with only a network cable and no switching display inputs after one initial activation of the MEBX is worth it to me

I found out today when double checking that one of the two screens in use only has a VGA in. I am now caught again between replacing the legacy item while I'm at it, the mentioned DH77DF for size or the mATX DQ77MK again.The fact that the DH77DF needs an ATX PSU is btw a negative for me. There's not many options that are really efficient and small on top of that. The existing ones cost a lot. Given that power here is painfully expensive with a tendency up and the system will probably be running a lot with a projected useful life of 3-5 years, every Watt counts.

The DH77DF doesn't support AMT unless Intel have been very secretive about it. AMT is limited to Qxx chipsets along with an appropriate CPU.

Have you considered the Jetway NF9E? Not DC input, but it gives you everything else(including VGA out), and you can still go the DC brick route using a PicoPSU or similar. The efficiency difference is likely negligible, assuming you get a reasonable DC brick. There's also the Jetway NF9G if really want to go down the power saving rabbit hole, although eBay tends to be the only reliable source of mobile CPUs.

Checked my machines when I got home last night. I have the DQ67EP, which does have AMT support. I was confusing it with the system next to it, which is the DH77DF.

You could just go with a business class Laptop and be done with it. Dell's Latitude and Lenovo's Thinkpads (T, X And W for sure, not sure about the others) both support AMT, have low power draw and can easily be tucked away behind a monitor. Still not sure about the KVM over IP part, which seems more for your convenience than anything for the GF, but you are paying for it, so party on.

IIRC, the current gen ThinkPads still include VGA out, and have DisplayPort, which you can easily convert to HDMI or DVI. Latitudes come with VGA and HDMI (for some reason the E6330's use mini HDMI, while the smaller E6230 has a full size HDMI port...).

Have you considered the Jetway NF9E? Not DC input, but it gives you everything else(including VGA out)[...]. There's also the Jetway NF9G if really want to go down the power saving rabbit hole, although eBay tends to be the only reliable source of mobile CPUs.

The NF9E lacks DisplayPort, which I want as I suspect it's going to become the standard in the next years. There's a display upgrade expected during the lifecycle of the box.The NF9G and a mobile CPU are likely to net me almost no benefit by guts. And mobile CPUs are slow and expensive. They surely don't offset their higher price even at way higher power costs than I have.

@ PsychoStreakDude! I just looked at Lenovo's German site for a price estimation. A stripped down T series is still twice as expensive as my whole planned system! I won't speak about the W series. It's one of those, a nice 32" IPS and power for its lifetime.Besides that, even if I go for an i7 to have four cores I end up with severely less speed. Then I have proprietary mechanical parts, likely higher noise, at least under load...If mobility would be a benefit I'd consider it, but there's no benefit at all. (She got my old 12" laptop and simply has no use case for it, let alone something bigger and heavier.)

And actually my GF pays for most of it. I just convinced her that it's time for an upgrade because of lacking snappiness and the cost being offset by a large part through power savings. I want KVM over IP for a large part just to have it in case and for the initial setup, as there'll be a lot of installing and configuring. And because it doesn't cost extra, but comes with choosing the right parts in CPU and mobo.*

I also found this in the meantime: http://www.jj-computer.com/Products/Cas ... pc/Nu0526/I've also found a test where they confirmed the 200W PSU delivers clean power and it is rated 80+. Plain 80+, though. I think I might give it a try and see if it is bad enough to make it worth to toss it.

* Turns out there is a catch! When I thought that I might want to get something that has the HD4000 graphics I found out that the only non-i7 supporting vPro with an HD 4000 is the 3475S. And that is not available boxed, only intended for OEMs and not on the official compatibility list for the mainboards I am considering...

I mentioned the laptop since you're focusing on small, and the management functions you're trying to get are typically included in a business class laptop. You'd use the external monitors and peripherals, and the laptop would take up a very small amount of space. The portability is secondary.

Also, for the features you want, you're going to wind up paying more and adding complexity to the build (USB sound card) for that IP KVM.

Perhaps it's just me, but for this I wouldn't install the machine on her desk until it was completely built, configured, tweaked and ready to go.That said, I do have my own Dameware license for support, so I get the desire for a "hands off" setup.

There's not really a budget, but I won't spend more than a thousand on a laptop that's slower and doesn't even come with a VESA mount kit

And the functionality doesn't really come for that much extra. I would have chosen a higher end Intel board anyway, as they are among the most conservative regarding power and I have very good experience with the reliability. The price difference between e.g. a DH77DF and a DK77KB is close to nothing here. The CPU is just a compromise in terms of getting a non-boxed version and paying maybe 20 bucks more. Even the USB soundcard would not add that much, as a proper laptop brick is way cheaper than a proper real PSU with comparable efficiency.Getting remote management capability in hardware and hence entirely OS and software independent in that specific situation is really not adding to the bill. If the box ends up being replaced, at ~10-12W idle usage there's a good chance it might still be useful for something. For remote support it would also be great.

And yes, for installing I wouldn't put it on her desk. But I also don't want to have to fiddle around on my desk. Just unplugging one screen and a keyboard for a minute and then being able to do all the things in a window I can alt-tab into is much more comfortable than plugging around mouse and kb repeatedly or cramming another one on my desk temporarily. I might add that I have a WDS server from the times I tinkered more with OS installs and had friends' boxes over. So once a box has network and the MEBX for KVM over IP enabled, it literally only needs power and a network cord.Initial setup would be holding the assembled box in hand, pulling a HDMI plug, the hub with the kb and the power chord, then turning my head 90 degrees for a minute to enable KVM over IP, as the non pivoted screens all use DVI and are screwed on, yanking the cords again and putting in on her printer tray, next to the power strip and switch.

But all that seems rather moot as of now. After her website has been compromised I cloned her HDD over to the SSD I ordered for her some weeks ago (along with some stuff for me and as a present) to make the virus scan go quicker. Now she's considering keeping the old box for a little longer. Gone seem my dreams of scratching the building itch I got But sooner or later it'll happen. The heavily overclocked Celeron is definitely a limit as of now. But I guess if she's fine now, it makes sense to wait for Haswell. Power cost would have subsidized a new build, but not paid for it. The current one idles at 45W and peaks at ~100W under torture tests.

One noteworthy thing that might get a smile or laugh out of those reading this and having trouble with the wife acceptance factor is that she was not really looking forward to losing her Thermaltake big tower. And when I found this, my plans of a clean, out of sight VESA mount have been challenged:http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/pr ... _index=134

The NF9E lacks DisplayPort, which I want as I suspect it's going to become the standard in the next years. There's a display upgrade expected during the lifecycle of the box.[/url]

Fair enough, although considering how long DSUB stuck around, and still is on a surprising amount of new monitors, I'm not convinced DP is going to supplant HDMI/DVI anytime soon.

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The NF9G and a mobile CPU are likely to net me almost no benefit by guts. And mobile CPUs are slow and expensive. They surely don't offset their higher price even at way higher power costs than I have.

Hmm. The i7-3720QM is £228, the i5-3475S is £168. The QM has HT(probably not of huge relevance to your use case), same turbo and 300Mhz less base clock speed and the same HD4000 graphics. I'll give you more expensive(~35%) but slow doesn't really fit. But yes, if you're trying to offset the cost against power it probably doesn't make a huge amount of sense. A hopelessly contrived example of assuming that the mobile version will always consume 20W less than the desktop version would require an electricity cost of ~£0.31/kWh to have payback in 1 year of 24/7 use(assumes ~90% efficiency on the PSU side).

I don't expect HDMI or DVI to vanish. But I have a feeling that DVI won't stay as long as HDMI and given how prevalent DP is even today, in three years big screens could be just DP by default. Given that you can have it now and it's a matter of choosing the right board, I highly prefer to have it.

You guys in the UK have way better sources for mobile CPUs I looked and I'd pay around 350€ for the 3720QM, where the 3475S is ~170€. But you have a point that the high end mobile i7s aren't really much slower. The different base clock would, just like HT, probably be irrelevant, as there's little besides peak load and a proper cooler should be able to buffer some seconds of load.

For the power consumption I would expect a very similar idle draw. Current Ivys are around 1-2W idle consumption and with lots of good will we could assume 0 for the mobile and add another Watt for VRs that are more efficient around such low loads. For the next year I would assume the average draw due to load to be around 5W tops, though. The 20W difference should roughly be as valid as the average load level, if we assume the 45W-65W TDP to be true. That's why I said I'd expect no benefit in a mobile CPU.Given that the current Celeron is at a load average of 15-20% and only due to being used for background TV, an i5 quad would be just a waste for the next 1-2 years.

The power costs are scaringly close to mine, though Well, power itself is around 6Ct per kWh, but with taxes and stuff it ends up at around 25Ct, Eurocent, and is sure to rise further.

Many UK shops, for example scan.co.uk will ship to .de and let's not forget amazon.co.uk or amazon.de - I got some pretty exotic components from Amazon, thanks to it's market place and let's face it, Intel CPU is not very likely to arrive broken in any case, the returns procedure is really simple.